Readers' Poll: 10 Best Mel Brooks Movies

7. 'History of the World: Part I'

After working on a Hitchcock parody with the man himself, Mel Brooks figured the only way to go bigger would be to spoof the entire history of the world. This ambitious film pokes fun at the Stone Age, the Old Testament, the Roman Empire, the Spanish Inquisition and the French Revolution before showing a mock trailer for a sequel that promised to cover Hitler on Ice, a Viking Funeral and Jews in Space. The film drew decent crowds, but critics were torn and some considered it too meandering. Whatever its merits, the movie did introduce the phrase "It's good to be king" to the lexicon, so we can thank it for one of the best Tom Petty songs of the 1990s.